'Istanbul: A Tale of Three Cities' succeeds as both vibrant history and personal tribute
All great cities are shape-shifters, and only shape-shifting cities have any chance of lasting long enough to be great. Cairo has been a hovel, a backwater, and a glittering citadel; Chengdu has been a cattle market, an imperial capital, and a sprawling transportation hub; New York City has been a debt-ridden nightmare (“Ford to City: Drop Dead”!) and the fulcrum of the world's super-wealth; and in all cases, the vast resources of these great hubs of humanity were matched by resourcefulness, as
